“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
1 Corinthians 6:12, ESV
The problem of any vice or addiction is not that the thing that we desire is really sinful in and of itself. Food is needed to survive, but when it becomes an obsession that fills all your thoughts, and you place all your devotion into consuming it, it becomes something else. We can point to the obvious addictions that many look down their noses at another, drugs and alcohol, but there are so many others that may seem innocuous, but the great issue is how they may dominate people’s lives. A man who loves his wife is a good thing, and we hope that he is also desirous of her, but when she becomes the center of who he is, we find the issue as she becomes an idol. The same is true with work or hobbies. Most of the time, these things are good and should be encouraged, but when they become something that stands before God, we find the issue. When anything gains control over us and stands before God, it is something that needs to be removed as it is now a god for us. Now when it comes to the spouse, in order to avoid a breach in the relationship, it would require some help and prayer since God desires healthy marriages. We must all eat and work in order to survive, so help will be needed, as with any addiction. All this is meant to be laid before our God as He will seek to bring restoration to His own. We are no longer meant to be bound up in guilt and shame, which often are the centerpieces of anything that dominates our lives. Some things we are not meant to indulge in, also, because they, by nature, will dominate our lives and bind us up because they themselves are sins. Anything which will stand between God and us is not worthy of our time and will only defile our bodies which are His temple, and for that reason, our Lord calls us away from it.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.